


Diamantis Fragmenta

by TheDarkFlygon



Series: Of Shells and Spells [1]
Category: Danganronpa kinda, Original Work, PDV
Genre: Asexual Character, Best Friends, Birthmarks, Bisexual Female Character, Blood and Injury, Brother-Sister Relationships, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Elemental Magic, Established Relationship, Eventual Naegiri, Eventual SaJul, F/F, F/M, Falling In Love, Fantasy, Father-Daughter Relationship, Female Protagonist, French Characters, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Latin, Lesbian Character, Magical Girls, Magical Realism, Male-Female Friendship, Mild Language, Minor Injuries, Platonic Female/Female Relationships, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Platonic Male/Male Relationships, Platonic Relationships, Secret Identity, Strong Female Characters, Team as Family, mild violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-20
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-10-21 11:43:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10684599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDarkFlygon/pseuds/TheDarkFlygon
Summary: Juliette Jonquille looks ordinary at first glance: she's a simple, maybe too young, History of Magic teacher at an ordinary school. She has friends, family, workmates she doesn't like to see and students. She's a mage too, just like everyone else around her.That is until she meets with Diamantis, a bounty hunter whose objectives are unclear.Juliette decides to trust in this not-so-secretive person, and with the people she cares about, to take down the secret threat behind every mage's back: the bounty hunter network.





	1. Back to School

In a world where magic and technology were going hand in hand and where there were no such things as wars between countries (as there were no countries), everybody was a mage, someone able to use magic for their own interest of the ones of the general population.  
Of course, the vulgum pecus was awfully uninteresting to tell a story about. Hundreds of thousands of mages were absolutely ordinary with absolutely ordinary powers and absolutely ordinary lives. The only thing telling them apart from each other was their Symbol.

Each mage was born with a “Symbol” engraved in their skin as a little birthmark on some part of their body. It could be on their back, in the palm of their hand, on their knee…  
If there was one thing to hide on their body, it would be the spot where this birthmark was located. Who knew what could happen to them if it was to be damaged in any way, shape or form.  
This little birthmark alone was the very source of their power.

When it would shine, a mage would change outfit and switch to a battle gear fitting their battling style. There were those attacking from afar, those fighting head-to-head, those who didn’t really know what they were doing in the first place…  
Years and years of training from family, school and mentors were mandatory if they wanted to be effective in a personal battling style.  
Why would they fight in the first place, in a world where wars weren’t a thing? Who knew. But this was the most effective way to develop one’s magic, and in a world where magic was the primary energy source and force, there was some invisible pressure to train it.

Magic, despite being the most versatile thing ever seen, was still classified in four elements: water, fire, earth and wind. Plasma was part of wind. Ice was part of water. Electricity was part of fire. Plants were part of earth. It seemed pretty easy, at first.  
As with everything that had to be taught, it was deeper in reality. Elements often got mixed together, thus why this classification was absurd to think about.

Mages were born in a certain Kind. This “Kind” was the main determinant of their battling style and magic altogether.  
Weapon users would mostly rely on, well, a weapon made out of solid magic. Basically unbreakable, as they were able to be spawned infinitely. Their spells would rely on enforcing this weapon or as alternate ways to use it. They happened to be the majority.  
Spellcasters also had weapons, but it was the other way around: use weapons to enforce attack or defence spells. As such, they had… More original weapons: bag of seeds, top hat (?), gloves… Their number was tied with the last tier.  
Healers were, as their name would indicate, the only ones able to heal other mages. They weren’t able to attack much stuff, but their defence spells happened to be the best around. Their weapon was a healing item, and most healers happened to have bandages as their weapon. There was no rule of no duplicate weapon after all.  
What, “Hybrids”? Those would never happen, right?

And there she was for the first day of a new school year. It was her… Fourth? Fifth? Probably fourth year. It was all about discovering new classes, meeting new students, probably sigh at the sight of some of them and realizing once again how painful teamwork in general was.  
But this was the job she had wanted to make. It was much better than prime hunter, janitor (she didn’t have appropriate magic for cleaning anyway) or even housewife. At least, it was so for her. Personal tastes, she supposed.

“Mistress, Mistress!” screamed a familiar voice from behind her, coming from a tall girl with dark blond hair and blue eyes just running around.  
“Oh, Justine! What are you still doing here? I thought you had graduated last year?”  
“Well, I did! I’m there to get my teaching degree now!”  
“Is Mr. Parillot your tutor, by all means?”  
“You guessed it! He told you about it?”  
“No, not yet. But he did say it wouldn’t surprise me, so… Yeah. Mind if I check on my lists now? Class is about to start soon  
“Not at all! See ya!”

It would only take her a few minutes to join her workmates, no matter if she liked them or not. Lucky for her, someone else familiar showed up to say her hello.  
“Oh, hello Luc! How are you?”  
Taller than she was, with flowy brown hair and lighter eyes, not to forget his signature three-day beard. Yep, he was the exact same as before the holidays. And as the four previous years.  
“You know, business as usual, everything is fine until some douchehat is there to annoy the crap out of me. And you?”  
“I’m a little tense, like on every school year start. You know, the usual stress of discovering classes and stuff…”  
“It’s the first year you get the graduating classes too, right?”  
“Also that…”  
“I’m sure you’ll be able to pull it off! After all, you’re the youngest one of us to be in charge of such a thing! I believe in you, and so do the others.”  
“I have to pull it off anyway, just for their sake.”

He laughed and looked at her with an awkward smile.  
“Hey, Juliette, chill! We’re day one and you’re already speaking like they’re about to take on their final exams!”  
“Oh, huh, sorry about that. I should calm down…”  
He patted her on the shoulder.  
“If you stress yourself too much, you’re gonna get grey hair! You don’t want grey hair yet, don’t you?”  
“Of course I don’t!”

The tense part came around when she was looking at the class she would be the homeroom teacher of. It was mainly composed of spellcasters, again. The obsession with associating spellcasters with her subject in this school was weird. At least, they were tenth year students, those who just began high school… Not hard to deal with.  
“Okay, so… Welcome everybody, you may take your seats. I’m Mrs. Jonquille and I’ll be your History of Magic teacher for this year. None of you had me before, so I need to get things straight before we start.”

She leaned on the wall.  
“As with every teacher here, I have to specify my Kind and element. I’m a weapon user with water-based magic. That being said, our field of expertise this year will be about spellcaster history. I only request you to follow some basic rules.”  
Oh dear, that was going to be long for not much.  
“I request a general silence for those who want to work, no gum chewing or anything in the kind, and no throwing in class. If you’re making efforts and putting enough interest in this subject, you and I will be on perfect terms. That out of the way, we can start this new school year!”

Everything had to be explained to the new arrivals: the canteen’s reservation system, the split between magic-focused classes and more theoretical classes (such as History), the basic rules of break times, etc.  
After all this administrative stuff was finished, the school day was over. At least, it meant no more things to explain.

It was time for her to go back home and polish some lessons before the first real day of class.  
Well, that was her plan until she crossed the path of another mage, transformed into a lilac-coloured battle gear seemingly waiting for her.

“You’re Mrs. Jonquille, right?”  
“Yes, that’s me… But who are you?”  
She smirked.  
“My name’s Diamantis. I’m a bounty hunter. This is all you need to know.”

Oh, so this mysterious individual was going by a pseudonym. Someone was surrounding herself with fog.  
She grabbed her wrist and took her apart, leading to a forgotten tiny street.

“What’s wrong with you?!”  
She was only replied to by a silence while the nameless one let her go.  
“And what do you want from me in the first place? I’m just an ordinary teacher.”  
“I just want to know one thing.”

Juliette tilted her head.  
“That’s just it?”  
“Well, not really. If you answer ‘yes’ to my question, I’ll have to see one or two things with you…”  
“Go for it then”

“Are you a Hybrid?”


	2. Night of the Hybrid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Take a guess as to who Diamantis is and what her goals are before this chapter.  
> Shit's about to go downhill.

So this complete stranger wanted to know if Juliette was a Hybrid. If this word wasn’t dirty enough, Diamantis' insistent look wasn’t making her feel any comfortable sitting with the association between her and the H word.  
At least, this strange girl was direct enough not to censor the word.

“I’m not.”  
“I’ve been told you may be one, and if you were, that I had to bring your ass for a price. You know what we do to Hybrids, right?”  
Oh, right. The reason why bounty hunters had such a bad reputation, most of them were chasing Hybrids to get prices. Apparently, those between the two categories were more exotic than the others.  
Only silence followed.

The hunter crossed her arms and got a serious expression on her face.  
“It’s not that I don’t want to believe you, but my income depends on it. You know what we do to those we suspect to be Hybrids, do you?”  
“Indeed.”  
Without saying anything, Juliette switched to her battle gear. There was no way out from this encounter.

While the fight hadn’t started, she took her time to analyse quickly her opponent’s gear. A short dress with butterfly short sleeves, fingerless gloves covering both of her forearms, ankle-length boots with high heels; all of it was lilac. How was she fighting, let alone staying, on those was a mystery to her, but that wasn’t the most important.  
The most important was how she would fight her. 

Diamantis looked puzzled as soon as she had finished transforming.  
“I thought you were a weapon user.”  
“I am a weapon user, what makes you think I’m not?”  
“Everything! You fight with long open coat and flowy clothes! How are you supposed to move freely in those?!”  
Bullseye… She had to come up with a stupid excuse.

“My weapon has a long range, I can allow myself not to freeze, right?”  
“Maybe, but you should know you can get longer and more practical sleeves with more practical stuff. You’re a teacher, you’re not supposed to teach that to kids?”  
“I don’t teach combat, I teach History. Besides… I’m godawful at combat…”  
This fact wasn’t a lie…

The other mage just blinked in place.  
“You… You’re actually bad at fighting?”  
“Well, yeah.”  
A chilly grin appeared on her face as she regained her composure.  
“It’ll just be easier that way then.”

Before she could add anything, Juliette had to prevent this hunter from crashing into her. Her speed was incredible, and with flowy clothes, she didn’t have an easy time evading her assaults. At least her second skin was there, but she would better not take any damage.  
Soon enough, Diamantis made her weapon appear in her hands: a pair of billhooks. She was a head-to-head fighter. If only she could take her distance from her, the fight would be far easier.

The opportunity never showed as long as she was being attacked repeatedly. Was this woman never tired? Even her long, untied hair wasn’t going against her! Soon enough, Juliette felt obliged to get her own weapon out, revealing her war fans.  
Even if she didn’t say a word, she could read the reaction of her opponent on her even more puzzled face. Indeed, “long-range weapon” didn’t scream fans, even if you could throw them. A boomerang would be a better weapon for that.

The perks of having fans as her weapon was her capacity to block the attacks directly. These two were pretty solid, they wouldn’t break even after a thousand hits of billhooks, no matter how angered those hits were.  
She couldn’t say such things about her current condition in the fight, as Diamantis was completely in control of the battle. Maybe it was time for her to attack quickly. Charging both of her fans with water magic, she slashed in her opponent’s direction.

It hit directly, breaking the latter’s momentum. She rolled back. There was no time to waste, as the water mage started to throw water blades at the other one. Finally, finally the battle was evolving, and even better, going in her favour! She just had to tire her out and…  
The next second, while looking up, she saw Diamantis throwing herself onto her. In a reflex, she just ran and continued shooting her blades, trying to dissuade her from getting near her. There was no way she was going unscaved if the battle was happening near her and not far away. She didn’t lie when she said she was a long-range fighter.

Diamantis started to dodge the blades while getting closer. Before she knew it, Juliette had a pair of billhooks near her throat. This wasn’t good, this wasn’t good… If the battle was turning against her so badly, she would have to do the most despicable thing she could. But survival was more important than honour, wasn’t it?

In a swift move, Diamantis got pushed back and hit her back on the wall facing her prey.  
“What the…”  
Her eyes grew wide as soon as they landed on the brown-clothed mage.  
“How did you…?”  
Her face distorted even more.  
“I disarmed you! You should be defenceless!! Why?!”

Juliette simply showed her hands.  
“You are a Hybrid…”  
“Does it surprise you? I don’t make any effort to hide it.”  
“I should have known from the get go with that battle outfit of yours.”

Diamantis launched at her again, billhooks fiercely facing her adversary. She got astonished when she flew back onto the wall again.  
“Dammit… You hold back when you use your fans…”  
“I don’t.”

The lilac mage got back to her feet, clutching her weapons.  
“Wait…It means your magic is terrible too, right?”  
“How did you come to this?”  
“All Hybrids are equal parts of their Kinds.”  
“Actually, that's not always the case…”

Diamantis found herself bewildered it seemed.  
“But… We’ve always been told that! You’re not equally a spellcaster and a weapon user?!”  
“No, I’m a one-quarter-three-quarter. I’m only one quarter worth a weapon user.”  
“It means that…”  
The only response she got was a nod.

What Juliette wasn’t expecting on her side was for this mysterious individual to cast her weapons away.  
“So this is why they want us to chase and bring Hybrids to them…”  
“Who are ‘they’?”  
“Our clients, those who request and give a price if we get them what they want. I didn’t know why they wanted Hybrids so badly, but I think I do now.”

She paused. Her face looked as grim as it could be, only to look at her in the eyes directly.  
“You held back, didn’t you?”

Juliette blinked.  
“How do you know…?!”  
“We are in a dark alley at an hour most people are already back home. I didn’t choose this place and time for nothing. You could have perfectly killed me here without fearing to be caught. You only used your weapon at first because you didn’t want to injure me too badly, did you?”  
“I was trying to hide my Hybrid identity. You’re a bounty hunter, you’re here to kidnap me at best.”  
“Most of us die at the hands of Hybrids. I never knew why, but I felt resentful for my fallen comrades. I now know why, nobody ever told us some of your kind are hugely unbalanced. Which brings me to this question: if you were sure that I was here to harm you, and that you still think so, why aren’t you killing me on the spot?”  
“I can’t.”  
“You can.”  
“It’s not that I can, it’s that I could.”

Diamantis found herself puzzled, if her face was any indication.  
“What is even the difference?! You can kill me!”  
“I’m not homicidal, and I think you’re not either. Why would you be standing in front of me with your weapons away if you weren’t?”  
“So you hold back even now. I don’t know if you’re either reckless or admirably kind-hearted…”  
“I guess one comes with the other.”  
“So, let’s say… Would you help me fix a small problem?”

Juliette found herself wondering what “problem” it could be, if there was a problem to begin with, of course.  
“What problem?”  
“The only reason my guild has to chase Hybrids around is because one member got her little sister held hostage by an immensely powerful client that raised us against each other. I want to smash his face onto the ground and get him arrested. My guild doesn’t and prefers to play safe. I… I want you to help me. I don’t want to kidnap people around so this one dude can get more powerful than anyone else and overpower us when he wants to win the world.”

She seemed dead honest, and making this kind of story up would be quite the challenge. But some questions had to be asked before she could even remotely agree on joining such a cause.  
“How is this man called?”  
“He goes by the pseudonym of Dux. We know nothing about him, except that he kidnapped my comrade’s little sister who he holds hostage and that he wants to ‘research’ Hybrids for personal gain.”  
“Do you have any idea why he would want to research on Hybrids?”  
“I think I now have one. He wants to combine the three Kinds in himself to become an ultimate mage, but he’s just a powerful weapon user as far as I know.”  
“He’ll never be able to become a Hybrid. This is madness.”  
Yes, you couldn’t make this shit up.

Juliette had to take a decision. Only one last question remained.  
“What is your Symbol?”  
“Didn’t my name give it away? I’m the Diamond.”  
Someone giving away their Symbol also gave away their elemental alignment.  
“What is yours?”  
“The Shell.”  
A Symbol exchange, huh. It had been a while since she had done one of those. The last time was with Justine, as far as she knew. And this fellow was her most trustworthy student. A bounty hunter wearing her Symbol in her pseudonym was here to mistake people based on their way to think. It was genius.

“So, it means you trust me and that I can trust you, right?”  
“Indeed. You have a place to go for tonight?”  
“I’ll have to leave anyway. I hope I’ll get to see you soon enough. For now, I’ll have to get more information. I’ll just tell them they were wrong about you being a Hybrid and that you’re just an incredibly lame weapon user. Is it okay?”  
“It’s perfect. See you soon, Diamantis.”

The lilac-wearing mage then fled away in the darkness of the street as sun was setting down. It was time to hit back home.  
Her blue eyes were pretty though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you think I was revealing Diamantis' identity right now?  
> Pff, you don't know me then.


	3. The Mystery of the Missing Flower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A month after her meeting with Diamantis, Juliette meets with other people.  
> Well, kinda. She knows them already, but a new light shines upon them.  
> We also get to meet Clém, a character I love to talk about way too much.

A few weeks had passed since her meeting with the ever-so-mysterious Diamantis. Now that it was early October, Juliette was to be assigned her protégés for this school year. She had been skipped on previously as the youngest teacher of the school, except for her first year where she had been assigned Justine, an out of the ordinary teenage girl at the time.  
The system in itself was pretty simple to get: most teachers would get between one and five of them every year, but not every single student had a protégé inside their school, as most parents give their children to specialized tutors. Only a handful of them would as such get assigned to one of their own teachers.  
She had been the only protégée of one man herself: Luc Pariot, her workmate and mentor. He had refused to take anyone under his wing until she had graduated high school. Now he had protégés again, and the same Justine had been his for two years after her own tutorship. 

She was to meet with them at 10AM, after her class with twelfth year students. Once she arrived at the Tutor Room, she got to the alley bearing her name. She was finally recognized as a real member of the school staff instead of a small beginner who maybe needed a tutor on her own.  
In front of her, a curtain was cutting the path in two. She knew what was on the other side: alleys with temporary names for the students, located in the Protégé Room. As to her own alley, it would be the students she would have to be the tutor of.  
As per tradition, she switched to her battle gear. 

The curtain was lifted little by little, and as soon as she saw two battle gears, she knew who was on the other side of the alley.  
A rather tall lavender-haired girl with purple eyes and a black and purple dress-like battle gear with boots, wearing gloves. A spellcaster.  
A petite brown-haired boy with green eyes, a streak of her risen on his head, dressed in a green and gold battle gear. Another spellcaster.

Once she could see their faces, the first thing she noticed was how surprised the boy looked and how unfazed his comrade was in contrast to him.  
“Mrs. Jonquille?!”  
His eyes switched from his teacher to his comrade repeated times before stopping on the former.  
“But I thought you were a weapon user!”  
She giggled.  
“I am, but it seems like you’ve been assigned to me by total luck. Or bad luck, you’ll be the judge!”

They went to her dedicated tutoring room. The first step was getting to know them better. Usually she would make them answer a number of questions, like what middle school they were coming from or what subject they like the most at school, but this time around, it would be different. Not only did she already have their sheets, as they were regular students from her main class, but since she was only with the two of them, she had time to be personal.  
As they sat, the two students were facing their newly appointed teacher. While the taller one didn’t seem very impressed, her small classmate was nervous. It was their first time getting a tutor, she figured.

“Let me get your names correct first… You’re Kyoko and Makoto from the 10-4 class, right?”  
“Indeed.”  
“Yes!”  
These two were good students, and even if the boy’s grades were average at best, he was still trying his best. He was such an optimist that his hope was contagious. Every time he was in a class of hers, he would make her feel better about her own lesson skills.  
As to Kyoko, she was a quiet character. Her tests showed some brilliance of knowledge and reflexion alike, but she would never participate much to the class itself. It was a surprise she didn’t have a private tutor as her father was a headmaster of another, far more prestigious school, Pic de l’Espoir High School. The situation was beyond weird, but she rolled with it. A protégée wasn’t to be rejected.

The discussion needed to become serious. She was there to teach them about magic stuff.  
“So… As your tutor, you must know by now I have to know your Symbols and Elements. Would you mind telling me about them, please?  
Makoto was the first to answer.  
“I’m the Clover, and I’m an Earth elemental. My weapon is weird though…”  
His classmate followed.  
“I’m the Enigma. I’m a Wind elemental. I use black magic.”

This detail picked her curiosity.  
“Speaking of weapons, what are yours? I need to get some information of them before I can properly teach you anything remotely useful.”  
They both invoked their weapons.  
“Mine is the Book of Mysteries. It’s a spell grimoire.”  
“And mine is the Leaves of Luck! I… Don’t really know what they are… Small magic leaves?”

Mrs. Jonquille herself casted her fans.  
“Since we’re being very transparent to each other, let me show you my own weapon, the Rock Fins.”  
“Nice!”  
“So you’re a weapon user, Mistress. It seems pretty weird we were assigned to you.”  
“I know! I guess my tutoring will be mostly theory but I’ll try my best!”

After some other questions about what their objectives were (mostly getting their year) and their main style of combat, Juliette and her students separated until their next class together. She was going to spend the remaining of her Wednesday afternoon at school “researching” about their combat styles (mostly for Makoto) when she crossed the path of someone familiar…  
“Hey, Ju!” called her an energetic voice from the other side of the hall.  
She turned back to see a tall, tan-skinned brown-haired woman with grey eyes and glasses, dressed in a lab coat.  
“Ah, Clém!” 

They got near each other.  
“Whatcha doin’? Still workin’ your ass off because of some finals that aren’t happening for months?”  
“I was about to search support magic for one of my protégés. You’ve finished your day, right?”  
“Yep! You should finish yours too, you’re not hurried by time, right?”  
“Not yet, at least.”

They mechanically walked together to the personal entrance of the school.  
“You’re not going back to the library, Ju?”  
“I’ll ask Luc stuff directly. He’s a far better offensive spellcaster than I am.”  
“But… Didn’t you beat him to pass your teaching exam or something?”  
“I did, but I’m a balanced spellcaster technically speaking. I can use support spells when he can’t, and I got him by surprise when I unveiled my Scalding spell…”  
“He probably thought being a Fire element when teaching a Water one didn’t have any impact! Good job!”  
“Clém, that was five years ago…”  
“I know, but it’s still impressive as hell! Luc was one of the strongest teachers here!”  
“He still is!”

Clém smirked.  
“He’s less good than you anyway! Student surpasses master!”  
“That’s what he always tells me nowadays…”  
A silence installed itself before her tall friend stopped walking.  
“Juliette, is something wrong?”  
“I need to tell you about something.”  
She taped her smaller friend’s shoulder.  
“Let’s go to my place then.”

Soon enough the two women were sitting at a table, each with a glass of water near them.  
“So, what was that thing you were supposed to tell me about Ju?”  
“I met with a bounty hunter last month. She knows I’m a Hybrid.”  
“Oh fuck.”

Clém was frozen for a few seconds.  
“You… You forgot to not use your spells?”  
“I had to use them, she had her billhooks at my throat. I would have been caught or killed otherwise.”  
“Thought about drowning the bitch?”  
“You know that spell is forbidden.”  
“You were about to die! It’s legitimate!”  
“I don’t kill anyway, Clém… She spared me.”

The tan mage blinked.  
“Wait, she did?”  
“She promised not to denounce me.”  
“And how do you know you can trust her?! She’s a bounty hunter!!”  
“She gave away her Symbol.”  
“And, huh… What is it…?”  
“The Diamond.”

Clém let out a sigh of relief as she poured herself another glass of water.  
“Phew… That’s not Corinne then…”  
“She has billhooks anyway. Corinne was a spellcaster.”  
“That’s also true… Man, it’s been so long since she went missing…”  
“She became a bounty hunter, you and I know this.”  
“You think she’ll be after your ass too? She knew you…”

“…She’s always known you were a Hybrid. We’ve been together since Luc adopted you, she knows you’re not an ordinary weapon user… As much as I’m not an ordinary healer…”  
“And yet she never came to us. Don’t you think it’s weird for a bounty hunter, considering they are pressured into chasing Hybrids because of closed ones taking hostages, not to come after two easy targets?”

Clém blinked again.  
“Wait… What is this whole hostage business?!”  
“According to Diamantis…”  
“Who is Diamantis?”  
“The bounty hunter from last month.”  
“Ooooh! Go on then.”

Juliette sipped in her glass. Classic Clém.  
“She told me the only reason why she was after me and Hybrids in general was to satisfy clients. She suspects the network for those is ruled by one man called Dux. He got a member of her guild’s little sister hostage.”  
“Do you think it’s…”  
“No, why would it be Léonie Rosace anyway? She was not a Hybrid.”  
“Yeah, but she’s missing. And so is Corinne. And so is Charline.”  
“Charline moved away to another city to live with Lynda.”  
“…You got a point.”

A silence fell upon there before Clém switched to another topic.  
“Oh, and, your protégés! How are they? Who are they?”  
“They’re students from the 10-4 class, Makoto and Kyoko. I have hope in them, they are a pretty compatible duo as far as I’ve heard from their middle school teachers.”  
“You’re a lucky nugget aren’t ya? Last time you got this Justine chick! How’s she doin’ anyway?”  
“Oh, I’ve been told she was as good as ever. Still the best of her grade at History of Magic. Some things never change!”  
They both got a laugh at it. 

That was until the door rang.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you stumbled upon here when you saw Makoto and Kyoko thrown in there, you now know I wasn't clickbaiting.  
> Welcome to PDV.


	4. Thorns, Pollen, Fumes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It took a while to finish this one lmao  
> Also I hope you're not bored with me introducing at least one new character at each chapter because it's bound to last for a while.

Clém rushed to the door as Juliette followed, eyes full of doubt. Considering her friend’s house was quite in the periphery of the city, they weren’t used to get visits when they were spending time together, even if it was after work.

As soon as the doctor opened the door, the two women froze.

 

In front of them was a slim, young man with dishevelled brown hair and half-broken glasses, in a navy blue and golden battle gear, blood oozing from his exposed arms. His legs were shaking under their own weight as he fell into Clémence’s arms. His battle gear shattered in particles as soon as he hit her skin. A pair of worried grey eyes landed on their friend.

Juliette herself stepped back. Whatever mood there was had been crushed once and for all. She didn’t dare looking at him much, dread crawling all over her back, but her own eyes focused on a scratch on his now naked elbow, near a strange birthmark.

His power mark.

 

Clém was making her way towards her own infirmary space. As usual, she was strong enough to carry a man like she would carry her bride during her wedding. This girl really was something else. Why she was such a wimp’s friend was beyond said wimp’s mind. And yet that wimp was just following her.

As she put him on the bed, the healer faced her.

“Hey, Ju, you know this dude?”

“Y-yes…” she stuttered.

 

Clém put away his glasses started to examine him, her eyes going carefully over the unconscious figure.

“Man, I don’t know who’s beaten him up like that, but they weren’t fooling around…”

She proceeded to take off his cloths as Juliette just watched, her face shades paler than her usual complexion.

“Holy cannoli”, screamed Clémence out of the blue, “he has fucking thorns in his wounds, what is this?!”

Juliette didn’t even dare to look. She had shivers down her spine.

 

“Hey, Ju, usually you ain’t that intimidated by that kind of stuff, what’s wrong? Oh, maybe it’s the spikes! That stuff’s gross.”

“No”, she almost gagged, “it’s not the injuries… It’s that…”

“Hmm?”

“He’s the Literature teacher of the college freshmen…”

 

Clém’s eyes grew wide.

“Holy fucking shit.”

She scratched the back of her head.

“Well, he got fucked up real bad. I don’t what kind of insanely powerful mage he’s been the chewing toy of, but they didn’t hold back on him. It’s been a while since I’ve seen someone with thorns in their body…”

 

Her hands glowed red as she started to remove the spines and close the wounds here and there on the unconscious man’s body with the help of a spell.

“Ya know him, Ju?”

“Not personally. I know he’s Justine’s teacher, but that’s it. I’ve only seen him once or twice before, he doesn’t sound like a bad guy though…”

 

Her noise twitched. Her friend looked at her, surprised, as she finished her job.

“What is it, Ju?”

“I can smell warm water around here.”

Clém sighed and looked at her with an amused expression on her face.

“ _Smell_ warm water?”

Then it hit her.

“Oh, right, you have those weird water detection abilities things…”

 

Juliette walked around the room, puzzled. Something was wrong about her nose filling progressively with the smell of warm water… No, not warm water. It had another smell to it. There was the smell of warm water, and then there was this stench next to it.

“It’s not warm water.”

“I was about to say there is no warm water around here at the moment… Then what is it?”

“It’s sweat.”

 

Clém immediately rushed to the unconscious one. Her left hand hovered over his face, glowing in white progressively changing to red.

“Is that the thermometer spell?”

“Yeah.”

Juliette never really got why one would prefer to use that instead of a regular thermometer. Maybe it cost less.

“Holy cannoli, he’s fucking boiling inside!” the doctor screamed. “You could cook pasta with his sweat!”

“That’s gross Clém…”

“Who cares, you got me! Go get me a washcloth or something, you’re the water bender in this room!”

 

Half an hour later, they had made sure to keep the man’s fever in check. The doctor still seemed perplexed as she looked at the dark purple content of the syringes she had in her hands. Her friend just watched her do so, completely quiet, until she broke the silence.

“What’s wrong with him?” she asked, looking at the unconscious one.

“He got poisoned with pollen. It’s been a while since I’ve seen such a thing…”

 

Juliette blinked. Something familiar rang through her head.

“Pollen? It must have been an Earth-elemental spellcaster then.”

“Duh, of course it’s an Earth spellcaster! It must have been Corinne.”

A sigh escaped the smaller one’s mouth.

“Clém, no. Why would she even attack him?”

“He’s a Hybrid, Juliette, that’s why!”

 

She went completely silent, eyes wide and jaw about to fall out.

“Don’t believe me? Come check out his mark.”

Juliette slowly made her way there, her face filled with terrified astonishment. Her short heels were the only sound in the room before she stopped in front of the part Clém’s hand pointed out.

 

She had unbuttoned his shirt so the upper half of his chest could be seen. Traces of her syringes were still heavily visible with a small reddish scar where they had been, and that even under a rather thick layer of body hair.

Clém’s hand pointed to the middle point of his chest, towards a little birthmark hair had failed to cover. It was shaped like a quill, but the detail that she wanted to point out was, without a doubt, the fact it was divided in two by a line.

Juliette looked at her own birthmark. A spiral in the middle of the shell she had on the skin. Yes, without a doubt, this guy was a Hybrid.

 

“See? He’s totally a Hybrid.”

A short silence followed before Clém spoke up again.

“Huh… What’s his name?”

Juliette thought for a few minutes. She had seen the dude before, but where? It came to her mind quicker than she expected.

“François Bannaire, if I’m not mistaken.”

“I think I heard about him once or twice. He must be new ‘cuz I haven’t seen him yet staggering in the corridors because of a high fever.”

Another sigh came from Juliette’s mouth.

“I’m the only one that you saw do that.”

“You did it twice, it counts for two.”

 

An unfamiliar coughing sound made them both jump. They both turned to the man who was slowly coming back to himself.

“Oh, how are ya, Mister Sleepin’ Beauty?”

“Huh…? What…?”

Crossing her arms, the teacher stared at her friend.

“Clém, he’s just waking up, calm down.”

 

He looked at them with a face so confused Juliette could have sworn she could smell that too.

“Wh… Why am I here…? Where are we…? Who are you…?”

“Well sir, you’re in my-” started Clém before her friend gestured her arm in front of her.

“Okay, calm down for a second. We’ll settle this calmly.”

 

He sat up as Juliette took the place of Clém next to the bed, while the latter went to the other side of the room.

“First off: how are you feeling, François?”

His eyes grew wide.

“Y-you know my name?!”

“We… We work in the same school…”

The dude seemed pretty disoriented. She brushed it off.

“Never mind,” she said, “let me introduce myself then.

 

She then sighed and started over, looking at him right in the eyes.

“My name is Juliette Jonquille. I’m a teacher at Elsimbo General School.”

He gently nodded. She continued.

“You’re at my friend Clémence Fucolle’s house. She’s the school’s general doctor.”

He nodded again.

“And you’re here because we fainted in front of us when we opened the door to you. Everything’s clear?”

“Y-yeah…”

 

Juliette’s face hardened.

“Do you have any idea why you ended up like this?”

François paused for a few seconds, his own face distorting into focus.

“I… I was attacked by a woman dressed in purple… I couldn’t see her face… But she had platinum hair… She… She threw that weird power at me… And after that, I can’t really remember…”

She crossed her arms.

“You were delirious when you reached here, no wonder why you can’t remember that part. Now rest, I’ll go investigate this mess.”

 

She then got up and made it to the entrance door before getting stopped by a cry for attention.

“Ju! What do you think you’re doing?!”

Juliette frowned.

“It’s obvious, I’m going to see what’s about with this woman.”

Clém’s body suddenly tensed as her jaw dropped.

“Are you insane?! You’re gonna die! Only Earth-elementals can survive this pollen alone!”

The long-haired woman didn’t say a word, neither did she flinch. Her face stayed expressionless.

 

Clém sighed.

“Let me go with you then.”

Juliette got doubtful.

“And let François alone?”

“He fell asleep as soon as you left the room.”

 

Another sigh came from the teacher.

“It can’t hurt to have a healer with me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> François was supposed to be introduced in Morbi Bellum hahahahaha


	5. Mask of a Hawthorn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Juliette and Clém decide to go after François' assailant.  
> But the one responsible for the toxic pollen infection isn't who they wanted it to be...
> 
> (it took even longer to write up this one the hell)

Clémence and Juliette had walked far enough from the house to not be heard by anyone and to be surrounded by trees. The former seemed puzzled, catching her friend’s attention.

“Clém, what’s on your mind? You seem… Lost.”

The grey-haired woman rose her head as she stopped walking.

“You’re sure it can’t be Corinne? I mean, the dude said that woman had platinum hair… And Corinne could summon thorns…”

Juliette herself had stopped, pointing her eyes down.

“I’m really starting to doubt it… The resemblance is uncanny… Maybe I don’t want to believe Coco could do such a thing. Maybe I’m the one in deny.”

“Coco”, huh. It had been a while since she had last used the nickname to refer to her fallen comrade.

 

Clémence looked at her straight in the eyes as she put an arm on her frail friend’s shoulder.

“Juliette… I know it hurts for you to feel betrayed but… If it’s Coco, we’ll have to fight her. We’re prime preys for bounty hunters.”

“I… I know…”

 

They continued walking in a total silence, until Clém stopped out of the blue. Juliette did the same, confused. She remained lost until her friend screamed on top of her lungs.

“Behind you!!”

 

In a swift jump, the Water-elemental mage avoided a thorn growing right under her. Turning her head towards the source of the spell unveiled to her who it was coming from: a female mage, around her age, dressed in purple and white with trays behind her reminiscent of thorns. Most of her face was hidden by a purple mask going from her forehead to her cheeks, revealing only the point of her noise and her lips covered in a magenta lipstick. Her face was surrounded by slightly wavy, platinum hair while her mask contoured her dark purple eyes.

She stood still as Clém and Juliette looked at her, still shocked. Ambushes like this one were rare now that tensions were officially down. She was clearly expecting someone else than this one dude.

 

“Who the fuck are you?!” screamed Clém, her right hand pointed at her.

As soon as she had pronounced those words, she switched to her battle gear: red top and shorts with lighter stripes and ankle-length boots. Her hands summoned syringes as she stayed on the defensive, taking a battle stance.

 

“I see that you’re on the offensive,” responded the mysterious woman, “Clémence Fucolle.”

The latter’s eyes grew wide and her face distorted into a fury-filled reverse smile.

“How do you know my name?! Why?! Tell us who you are!!”

 

That mage smiled and slightly giggled.

“Oh, a bounty hunter never gives out her method.”

Clém’s stance evolved from battle-ready to pure want to attack, as if she was a guard dog.

“Who **the fuck** are you?!”

 

That mage put a hand on her chest, revealing purple, fingerless gloves with bracelet-like enforcements made out of purplish silver on the wrist.

“My name,” she announced in a calm and collected voice, “is Venus.”

“That ain’t a legit name” reacted Clém. “Tell us your real name.”

“A bounty hunter never reveals her name.”

 

Juliette had to step in. If she didn’t, this was going to end in a pool of blood.

“Venus,” she called out, “what are you doing here?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” replied the hunter. “I’m here to chase a prey and get a prize.”

“Have you seen a brown-haired man wearing glasses around here?”

 

Clém went to her.

“Ask her if she’s here to get your asses instead of speaking about a dude we don’t even know!” she whispered into her ear.

“We’re not sure if she’s the one that attacked François” she calmly replied back. “We need to make that clear.”

“She knows my fucking name Juliette!”

 

A thick thorn emerged out of the ground, piercing right in their direction. In a reflex, they jumped back to face Venus.

“Have you finished babbling?” she asked. “This isn’t making things go any further.”

“Then tell us why you’re here exactly” insisted Juliette, determined to extract answers from the stranger.

“I’m chasing after you, Juliette Jonquille.”

 

She wasn’t that surprised, as she was one of the few Hybrids to have both avoided getting caught by a bounty hunter and to leave the hunter alive. Diamantis wasn’t ill-intentioned, or at least, she was less so than this lady in front of her.

But where had she gotten Clém’s identity from? Who? How? Her friend wasn’t such an obvious Hybrid case as the half-spellcaster was. She was an eighty-twenty, those would never get discovered. The story was thickening…

 

“I guess you’re after me because you suspect me of being a Hybrid” simply reacted Juliette, globally unfazed.

“You’re a Hybrid, don’t try to hide. We know because Diamantis didn’t tell us anything” insisted Venus, hands on her hips.

“D-Diamantis?!”

“Isn’t Diamantis… The chick that you fought the other day?” asked her Clémence.

“She… She is…”

 

Venus smirked.

“I’m in the same guild as this terrible, terrible weapon user. It must be hard to wield some stupid billhooks when everyone else in your group uses spells.

Juliette felt her blood heat up.

“That’s how you treat your comrades? I would hate to share a guild with you” she said, barely containing the sudden poisonous anger running through her veins.

“Are you getting offended on her behalf? Your heart is too tender, Juju!”

“Juju…?”

 

The three women stayed completely silent for a few seconds. This nickname wasn’t used by just anybody about her. Juliette had imposed herself to Diamantis as someone trustworthy and powerful, right? Another spellcaster, who had probably guessed she was also part weapon user, wouldn’t call her by a diminutive to underestimate her spell power.

“Corinne, is that you?” asked Clém, eyes wide, in-awe mouth.

 

Venus stayed completely quiet, her purple eyes wetting by the second.

“I can’t do this… I can’t fight the both of you…” she whimpered as she fell to her knees.

“Corinne… Is that really you…?” said Clém’s voice, filling with sadness she had kept hidden for years.

 

Despite their complete astonishment in front of such a swing of things, the both of them rushed to the one dressed in purple. The resemblance was uncanny. It had to be their fallen friend, the one that had disappeared for years, the one that left without a word once Léonie had gone missing so, so long ago.

Both Hybrids kneeled down to her level, seeing tears flow under her mask’s edges. A gloved hand softly grabbed the mask and slowly took it off, revealing a crying pair of emerald eyes. Familiar, missed emerald eyes. Without thinking about it for too long, Juliette hugged the both of them.

 

“Corinne… Why the fuck did you disappear?!” she heard herself cry.

“L… Léonie was taken hostage by some douchebag… I joined a guild fighting against him, but everyone was too terrified to do anything until Diamantis came in… And mentioned you…”

“Why trying to kill us, and attack François Bannaire?” asked Clém, pulling out of the embrace.

“I wasn’t planning on meeting you, or him for that matter… He just happened to be a Hybrid when my sis was about to get in trouble because Diamantis didn’t capture you on purpose…”

 

Juliette grabbed Corinne’s shoulders firmly, her fans now gone.

“Listen, Coco. You don’t have to do this on your own. We can, no, we will help you. Diamantis told me about this mess. We’re not enemies, we even have the same goal. We just want to save other people from a terrible force that’s threatening your little sister, Clém, even me… We can team up, Coco. We can free you and the others from this Dux guy.”

“You know about Dux…?”

“Diamantis told me. I have her trust and she has mine. Please, Coco… Let us help you.”

 

Juliette got up and, with a smile, gave a hand to Corinne who softly grabbed it before getting up with its help. Clém had gotten up on her own before. The Hybrid spellcaster was doing her hardest not to show too much attention, but inside, she just wanted to cry out of relief and happiness. She had to fix things up before she could allow herself to tear up.

 

“So… You’re officially on our side, right?” wanted to confirm the doctor.

“I’ve always been… I just had to hide behind the mask” replied the hunter, casting her mask away in a swift movement of her right hand.

Juliette blinked.

“Your… Mask is made out of magic?” she asked, surprised.

“Yeah! That’s how I gave myself my purple eyes! It’s easier to hide your identity, you know?”

“What about we go back to my place and have a glass of somethin’? I left that François dude alone when we ran for ya” interrupted Clém.

“Ah, huh, sure!” nodded Juliette.

 

Once back at the house, the three of them had to face the awkwardness of explaining to the one they had left behind what the situation was all about. They hadn’t had much time to think about it when they all met up with a conscious François pacing in the living room.

“Can someone explain to me what ha…”

His eyes grew wide and a shaky finger pointed at the woman dressed in purple.

“Y-you, here?!”

 

They all went back to their civilian clothes as Corinne cleared her throat, making some kind of gestures to try and calm this man down.

“We didn’t start on good terms I think… My name is Corinne Rosace. I’m a perfume engineer in the neighbour town. I… Happen to have some bounty hunter stuff going in the background, and we met at the wrong time in the wrong place. I’m a friend of Clém and Juju…”

“You’re all friends…?” he barely asked back, shocked beyond belief.

“That’s a long and complicated story, François” calmly stated Juliette.

“Can we all sit down and make it clear for everyone, cuz I think we’re all confused?” proposed Clém.

Three silent nods gave way to a table of four.

 

Clémence, as the owner of the place, started out.

“So… Corinne, you’ve been a part of this guild we don’t know the name of with that chick called Diamantis, right?”

“I’ve been a part of the Fragmenta Guild for a few years, indeed. Diamantis is our latest member.”

“Huh… Do you hate her as much as you hinted at doing?” asked Juliette, feeling some cold sweat going down her temple.

“I absolutely don’t, Diamantis is our best recruit… I would support her tries at freeing Léonie from this… Man’s claws if there wasn’t a death risk”

“This was all part of an act then?” asked the Water elemental.

“You got it completely right.”

 

François finally faced the platinum-haired woman, whose gaze he had avoided since the beginning of the surprise meeting.

“You… You tried to kill me, right?”

Corinne looked at her with almost disbelief.

“The pollen I used wasn’t meant to be toxic… It was supposed to be a sleep powder. I… Just forgot how bad it affects Water-elementals. You’re one, right?”

“I am…”

Juliette looked away. It was as if she could feel once again that one fever she got out of it herself all these years ago.

“Then I’m terribly, terribly sorry Mr. Bannaire. I really didn’t mean to harm you. It’s a coincidence you even were a Hybrid…”

“I… Guess I can let that go…”

 

Silence ensued until Clém broke it up.

“So, our plan is to destroy this Dux guy’s face and get back Léonie, right? How do we do that?” she asked.

“I think, for first, that I must lie about finding the three of you. Then, I’ll tell you what I know, and so will Diamantis, as soon as we have something new. You’re okay with that?” suggested Corinne.

“Works for me” responded Juliette.

“I… I guess I’ll follow too” replied François.

“And I’m fine with that too! Next, we’ll try to help you from the outside to take down the network, or at least, free Léonie from his claws” continued the doctor.

 

Little did they know their next meeting would take a while.


	6. God of the Sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A chapter full of surprises is about to start, starting with a birthday and ending in smoke.  
> Turns out someone else wants to hand Juliette (and probably Clém) on a silver plate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone end me I spend ages between updates

October had ended, bringing with it the fall holidays, all before November rolled around, bringing classes this time around. Falls were falling from the trees, dirtying the ground with brown chunks of dead vegetal, crunching under students and staff feet during each break.

This included Juliette’s feet, who were marching to work on this completely ordinary Wednesday of November. The air was chilly, sure, but the blue sky and the rather dry ground made for a nice change from the typical, continuous, pouring rain of the month.

The ambient humidity of November made her feel stronger, just like on every autumn. Her mana only felt stronger when her own elemental was all around her, a classic. Her powers would reach their maximum in the sea, but rain was far than enough in her peaceful, daily life of some teacher.

 

Despite her early arrival at school, she got surprised upon noticing that the door of her first classroom of the day was not locked. Juliette glanced at her watch: it was only half past seven, why would anyone have unlocked the door? Cleaning agents only worked when classes were over, not before they started.

Her lack of understanding only grew deeper when she saw Luc and François in the room, the former sitting on the desk, smirking, and the latter standing next to him, smiling gently. Everything became clearer when they both screamed her: “happy birthday!”

 

“W-what?!” she stuttered, stopping right in her tracks.

Luc got up from the desk and walked to her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“I can’t believe you forget your own birthday every year, Juliette”

“Oh, right, it’s November 16th today…”

He quickly hugged her as they heard François walking up to them. This was awkward, but she would be lying if she said she was not used to her father’s antics.

 

“How old are you then, Juliette?” asked the literature teacher

“I just turned twenty-five” she replied.

“Twenty-five?! You’re younger than I thought!” he responded, taken aback.

She couldn’t help but giggle.

“I’m always told that. I guess it’s because I got my exam early. How old are you, François?”

“I-I’m twenty-seven!”

 

Luc cleared his throat and they both turned their heads.

“Anyway, Juliette. You realize you’re quarter of a century old, right?”

“Oh, you’re right. That doesn’t make me any younger, that’s for sure.”

“Juliette, I’m thirty-six. Are you sure you’re in the spot to say that kind of things?”

“Sorry, _dad_.”

 

Time flew fast as they discussed of trivial things, chuckles and dad jokes soon left way to classes and some more history lessons. It was all about the test essay of the 12ES-2 class and correcting the small one of the 10-4 students. In short, an ordinary Wednesday morning until the afternoon tutoring session with her protégés.

In the back of her head, Juliette always had a thought about how calm the situation was. It had been a month since Corinne had resurfaced and she did not have many news to provide. All they learnt was the exact number of bounty hunters in her guild and their aliases. They knew about Corinne being Venus and she knew Diamantis, but they discovered the existence of two other hunters: Apollo, the only man of the guild and a spellcaster, and Rei, another spellcaster.

 

As soon as class was over, the teacher headed straight to a spot only their small group knew about. She was the first there but the other members did not very long to arrive: Clémence and Corinne were there shortly after, François arrived only minutes after and Luc was last. Nobody was late, as always, expecting the latest piece of information anyone could had found.

Except that a surprise had come to the “party” too.

 

“Juju! Aaaah, I can’t believe you’re already twenty-five!” screamed a cheerful, female voice before Juliette was squeezed in a tight hug.

“Oh, hi Auntie Fannie…” she barely replied.

Once she was let out of the hug, the birthday girl could see her aunt, a woman in her early thirties wearing a long-sleeved yellow dress, brown ankle boots and whose long brown hair was tied in a ponytail on her shoulder, her face contoured with two familiar strands of hair. Her green eyes shimmered with excitement, a habit of hers.

 

She went on to greet everyone, making sure to hug Corinne more tightly than the others because “she had missed on hugs”, with only François remaining entirely confused.

“I don’t want to be that guy, but… Who are you?” he asked.

“Oh, I don’t think we’ve met before! I’m Fannie Parillot, Luc’s younger sister!”

“Wait… You said you were Juliette’s _aunt_ , right? You’re all parents?” asked an even more lost François, pointing his finger at everyone involved.

 

Clémence and Corinne both chuckled.

“Ah, I missed all the quidproquos about the Parillots…” sighed Corinne.

“We, huh, ‘forgot’ to tell Fran’ about that. I have no regrets.”

 

Clémence then got up and went next to the confused man, gently elbowing him. He turned his head towards her, facing her right in the eyes.

“Ju is Luc’s daughter, so that makes her Fannie’s niece! It’s as simple as that” she explained.

“But, Luc, you mentioned you were thirty-six this morning… And Juliette is twenty-five…”

“Dude, she’s my adoptive daughter. Of course our age gap is too small for her to be my biological child” finally said Luc with a look of desperation on his face.

 

The misunderstanding now cleared, the group sat down to eat lunch before the afternoon activities. While Juliette and Luc had their tutoring sessions, their comrades all had something: François was researching the “Arcana system”, Clémence was of nurse office duty for the tutoring sessions, Fannie had classes to prepare and Corinne had her bounty hunter duties to fill. Well, it was more like “mole duties”…

Juliette could swear she would hear coughing sounds not so far from them, but kept quiet. It may had been the wind. Some wind elementals were quite the tricksters in the school, it would not be surprising for some of them to play with sounds.

 

After lunch was over, around one in the afternoon, Juliette and Clémence split up from everyone else. Luc was tutoring his own protégés in another building entirely, but not before he gave his daughter a bear hug and an invitation to her half-surprise birthday party on the following Saturday. The discussion had been more about her turning twenty-five than about their next plan of action…

“Didn’t Co’ mention that Apollo guy wanted to do something?” asked Clémence as they were walking to the infirmary.

“She did,” replied Juliette, “but it was so vague that I don’t think she knows what he really wants to do, especially not when and where.”

 

A loud fireball noise immediately alerted them as they were approaching the nurse’s office. Before they had even realized, both women were running towards the source of the noise. Their run lead them to one of the hidden grounds of the high school portion of Elsimbo, surrounded by now blazing bushes.

Juliette could feel something along the chills down her spine. It was some kind of energy, a familiar magic running around the area, coming from the middle of the flames. There was a dark part to it, with an aura of mystery, combined to a vegetal feel…

 

“What the fuck?! Why is everything on fire?!” screamed Clémence as she switched into her battle gear.

Now her friend’s aura of light added itself into the mix. The smoke was starting to poison the air as Juliette switched into her own battle outfit.

“What’s taking you so long?! We’re gonna die if you don’t start to throw water at this mess!!”

“I… Feel something…”

 

Eventually, the water mage activated her symbol and her hands started to glow in orange. She spread her arms around, focusing on collecting the rare leftovers of humidity left in the surroundings. A few seconds later, water flew from her hands.

“ **Extinguish**!” she yelled in accompaniment to her movements.

 

Fire soon let place to smoke, and before she could see the face next to her, Juliette felt a familiar sharp sensation in her arm, a hand on her wrist and under her coat. Smoke wasn’t polluting her lungs anymore.

“Thanks, Clém’.”

“Ya know I ain’t gonna let ya die of your asthma in the middle of some weird playground fire, you idiot.”

 

The greys and whites suddenly disappeared from their field of vision, as if it was just a wall to prevent people from seeing what was on the other side of it. The strange feeling Juliette finally had sense, something she realized just as she wanted her instincts to be wrong. Instead, all she did was scream.

“Kyoko!! Makoto!!”

 

Her female protégée was on her knees, bruised, a faint purple glow around her right hand. Her left glove had been burnt, so did her fingers under it. Her half-coat had taken damage too, and the ends of her purple hair were now blackened.

Her male protégé was under a tree, leaning on the wooden surface covered in ash, facing directly a third person. His own battle gear was also damaged: his hooded poncho had been torn in some places, almost removing the golden border of it, his wrist and ankle sleeves were half-burnt and his hair had also slightly taken fire at the tips.

 

“Who the fuck are you?!” screamed Clémence as she rushed to Kyoko’s side.

Juliette froze. The whole situation was bizarre, unpredicted, she didn’t know what to do. Instead, she just faced the third figure, the only one left standing with her now that Clémence had kneeled next to Kyoko.

Her eyes locked on a pair of bright turquoise ones, surrounded by a black mask with turquoise contouring. The thin, rust-haired man was dressed like a magician, in a black tuxedo and turquoise bowtie, light blue gloves covering his hands and a black hat with a blue ribbon around it covering the top of his head. A thick beard covered the lower face of his face.

 

His medium-pitched, calm voice resonated in the area.

“Welcome, Mrs. Jonquille. I knew you would come.”

“What did you do to them?!” she asked back, trying to slowly reach Makoto without losing eye contact.

“Oh, they served as bait. I was not planning on killing them, I simply needed something to bring you to me.”

“You coward…” she sneered.

 

Juliette was halfway through when a fireball blocked her way, stopping her right in her track. The hotness of the surrounding hair let her to cast her coat away, leaving her elbow-length-sleeved and asymmetrical-cut top to show. Her eyes quickly bolted a stare to the mysterious individual.

“What do you want?” she asked, her fists feeling tighter by the second.

“Is it not obvious? I need you to get a prize. You are a Hybrid, and I am a bounty hunter.”

“I would have never guessed. Was lighting everything on fire and injuring my students necessary? At least your colleague from a while back had the decency not to try killing anyone but me. I guess.”

“Oh, you mean Diamantis? She truly disappointed us.”

 

Her face hardened. Dread shot through her body, down her veins and down her nerves. Diamantis was in danger.

“Apollo.”

He looked taken aback for a few moments before shooting at her. She extinguished the fireballs with quick water spells.

“How do you know that?”

“The same way you somehow know my name.”

 

Apollo suddenly took off his hat and pointed its hole at his opponent before a large flamethrower assaulted her, partially injuring her right leg, as she felt on her knees to the ground.

“What did you… Do to her…?” Juliette spewed out, gritting her teeth.

“To Diamantis? Nothing yet. Someone else does not agree over her punishment.”

He was probably referring to Corinne.

 

“Ju, you’re alright?!” screamed Clémence as she ran to her best friend, leaving Kyoko barely standing.

“Yeah, that’s nothing major…” replied the water elemental as she rubbed cold water over her burning wound.

“Lemme heal that for ya before it gets too bad” said the nurse, her hands hovering over the burnt skin.

“You should take care of Kyoko instead, she’s more injured than I am”

“I already healed her up a bit, she’s exhausted. Pretentious douche over there doesn’t seem like he wants to end her for now, you require more attention than her at the moment.”

 

The magician-like man looked offended by the way he was getting referred to as she was quickly healing her friend, right before a powerful fire wheel hit Clémence and projected her right into a still burning bush, letting a cry of pain escape her mouth.

“Out of my way, Mrs. Fucolle. This is about your colleague” he said as his eyes glared at the healer.

“Oh you bastard…” was all she could reply before grunting.

 

As soon as her body could react, Juliette got up and tried to run to her best friend, only to be interrupted by a newly made wall of flames.

“This is between you and me, Mrs. Jonquille. I will not let you get any external help.”

The teacher glared at the bounty hunter, clutching her fists, gritting her teeth.

“What do you want from me?”

“Is it not obvious? I want you to get a bounty and free my…”

He interrupted himself.

“…Nothing.”

 

Juliette stretched her arms around, about to extinguish the fire before Apollo attacked her again, knocking her in a circle of flames. The lack of air made it even harder to breathe, she felt her trachea locking down ever so slightly at each second spent in the smoke despite Clémence’s spell still being in effect. A quick look behind her revealed that, through the intense blur of the unbearable heat, her friend was down.

“Ex… Extin…”

Her voice was getting weaker and weaker, unable to pronounce word. Her hearing was getting muffled as she softly put down the flames with weak magic, hoping to get enough air inside her lungs not to trigger her symptoms.

 


End file.
